Emily Kngwarreye

Untitled1993Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 208cm (Detail)

Emily Kame Kngwarreye (or Emily Kam Ngwarray) (1910 – 3 September 1996) was an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory. She is one of the most prominent and successful artists in the history of contemporary Indigenous Australian art.

She described her paintings as having meaning based on all the aspects of the community's life, including the yam plants. In one of her few well-known statements about her work, she said her paintings mean: ‘Whole lot, that's all, whole lot, awelye, arlatyeye, ankerrthe, ntange, dingo, ankerre, intekwe, anthwerle and kame. That's what I paint: whole lot.’